Mazoyères-Chambertin Grand Cru AOC 2022 1500ml Magnum

A Grand Cru with a cool core: dark cherry and wild raspberry, joined by violet, fine spice and a touch of undergrowth. The tannin is fine-grained, the acidity lively, the finish long and precise. In magnum format, the wine ages more slowly and gains complexity over the years.

Mazoyères-Chambertin lies at the heart of the Côte de Nuits. The Lignier family has farmed Pinot Noir in Morey-Saint-Denis since the 1880s: Jacques Lignier bought parcels devalued by phylloxera back then, and his son Jules patiently replanted them. Hubert Lignier took over the estate in 1959 and, from 1973, began bottling the wine himself instead of selling it in bulk. Today Laurent Lignier runs the estate in its fifth generation; he returned to Morey in 2010, six years after the death of his brother Romain.

Pinot Noir, farmed organically; synthetic products disappeared from the vineyards from 2007 onward. The cellar, acquired in 2008, relies solely on gravity, from crushing to bottling, with no pump ever moving the wine. Long, cool macerations precede fermentation, and the proportion of whole clusters has grown over the years. The estate uses new oak sparingly and spreads it across four coopers so that no single barrel marks the wine.

Dry, 13.0% vol., with juicy red fruit, fine-grained tannin and a cool thread of acidity that carries the long finish. Decanting is worthwhile.

Dishes with substance but no heaviness: duck breast with cherries, coq au vin, partridge or beef fillet in red wine jus. It also shines alongside truffle dishes and aged Époisses.

A 1500ml magnum from one of the great crus of the Côte de Nuits, made in a cellar that works entirely without pumps.